CM Punk & The Elite Kept Far Apart at AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door

Tony Khan ensured that a repeat of All Out 2022 would not take place between CM Punk and The Elite at AEWxNJPW: Forbidden Door.

The second-ever Forbidden Door event took place this past week in the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. For AEW, Forbidden Door marks the promotion's first pay-per-view event to take place outside of the United States, and New Japan's first traditional pay-per-view to take place in Canada.

AEWxNJPW: Forbidden Door II also has the dubious honor of being the first event to feature CM Punk & The Elite on the same show since All Out 2022. Punk won his Owen Hart Men's Cup Tournament first-round match against Satoshi Kojima, while Omega lost his IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship to Will Ospreay.

Fightful Select reports that AEW kept Punk and The Elite separate at the event, and were said to be on "completely different sides of the building" according to sources.

This is the latest step by Tony Khan to try and make Punk's return viable with The Elite still being a factor in programming. Khan has already opted for the two sides to work different shows, with The Elite being featured on AEW Dynamite while Punk is the leading name on AEW Collision. Given that the most recent episode of AEW Dynamite took place in Chicago however, the decision was made for Punk to appear on that show, as well as the most recent Rampage. The Elite did not appear in person for either show but did appear in a pre-taped segment on Dynamite.